Right, but then the question is how they cater the flight. If 17 people pre-order on a 20 seat 788, are they going to cater 4 meals (3 * 120%) or 7 meals (3 + (20 * 120%))?

And even in the "generous" latter case, that means if two of the remaining three pax want the same thing, they might not be able to get it.

If executed properly, this will probably be a win for FOTSGs booking far out, but not for high-status individuals booking extremely expensive last minute J.

But I have low faith in the bolded word.

The scenario I really expect to happen is that the pre-order becomes a "guarantee", so on an under-catered flight, a FOTSG who pre-ordered will be ahead of an SE who didn't, regardless of when/how their tickets were booked.

Or a mis-catered flight, where they have enough meals for everyone, but 4 people pre-order beef, and they only cater 4 beef, so even someone expecting to have "a choice" on board will not, in fact, have a choice.

High-status (i.e. high-spend) individuals booking last minute (i.e. expensive) tickets can only be hurt by this. On the outbound of the current trip I'm on, I had to change the flights within 72 hours of departure. That would eliminate my ability to pre-order. From what I know of most of my high-status high-fare friends, this is pretty common.

That's not even figuring in scenarios like:
"Hi Mr. Kennedy, this is the Toronto concierge. We noticed your inbound is delayed, so we've rebooked your connection to the next flight."
"No thanks, I can make it. Please put me back."
"Oh okay."

And there goes my meal selection.